Nikkei Asia

3 days ago | asia.nikkei.com | Lauly Li |Cheng Ting-Fang |Ryohtaroh Satoh

TAIPEI/TOKYO -- Top executives from Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft have been visiting Japan over the past year. Their mission: to secure supplies of a little-known ingredient vital for their artificial intelligence ambitions. These executives are all calling on the same company: Nitto Boseki, currently the only supplier in the world of the highest-end glass cloth, a material essential for making high-powered AI servers.

4 days ago | asia.nikkei.com | Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat

BANGKOK -- Thailand's Central Retail will focus on store expansion in Vietnam over the next three years as weak consumer sentiment weighs on the group's domestic businesses. In an investment plan it revealed on Tuesday, the retail arm of conglomerate Central Group has set aside 45 billion to 47 billion baht ($1.38 billion to $1.44 billion) for its expansion through 2027.

5 days ago | asia.nikkei.com | Shotaro Tani

TOKYO -- Asia's dependence on oil and gas from the Middle East makes it highly vulnerable to any closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas shipments that is now in Iran's crosshairs. Whether Iran could close off the chokepoint, through which around 20% of the world's oil and gas passes, in a conflict has been debated for decades.

6 days ago | asia.nikkei.com | Kiran Sharma

NEW DELHI -- The increasingly escalating Israel-Iran conflict, coupled with the U.S. announcing its bombing of Iran's nuclear sites on Saturday, puts at risk India's regional connectivity projects -- including one leveraging Iran's port of Chabahar -- and its energy security, experts warn. "An escalation of conflict in the Middle East puts Indian interests in jeopardy," Harsh V.

1 week ago | asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto

TOKYO -- Chie Hayakawa was in fifth grade when she figured out that she wanted to be a movie director when she grew up. Yet more than three decades passed before the Tokyo native had the chance to make anything more than student projects. It was simply not possible in the years she was raising children after college, particularly given the harsh working conditions prevalent in Japanese film production.